The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 171: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee ee ee ee tts ot ee Foe ao de ee - : THE BRONZE STATUE. 169 ed Rs steward Hubert had uttered on that] was characterized by a noble masculine | ‘4 never-to-be-forgotten occasion ! beauty 2 And in even the short and a ‘The lives of the three nobles are to | only conversation that had ever passed “qh be saved,’ had the White Lady emphat- | between them—namely, that of the pre- oh ically said: ‘and heaven must prompt | ceding night—had she not heard enough oe you how to act!’ But it appeared as | to convince her that his was an intellect . if. | if heaven had done more than merely | of no common order? er prompt : ithad clearly and plainly inter-| It was in the midst of reflections of es | vened to succor and assist. At least so| this nature that Angela fell asleep; but Ve a thought the pious Angela; anda portion| when she awoke in the morning she bp of her prayer this night was devoted to | was laboring under the influence of a 8) expressions of gratitude to that effect. | strong fever, the result of the accident io And Hubert, too—what had he said 1lof the preceding day, Gloria imme- ba Oh! she had not forgotten one syllable | diately summoned the most eminent Nig that fell from his lips when he invoked | physicians attached to the ‘Taborite agi heaven’s blessing upon her head, and|army; and the medical practitioner, he declared that a special vision had im-| while prescribing the usual remedies, ay pressed him with the belief that she ordered the patient to retain ber couch a? was destined to achieve marvellous | until the fever should have subsided. gts things! ds | And did Angela think only of the —_—— hes | White Lady and Hubert ere slumber + a visited her eyes on this first night that CHAPTER XLIII. icky she slept within the walls of the Castie ef of Prague? No; for she thought also REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. of her adopted parents, those kind- dl hearted peasants who had wept so bit-| Four days elapsed, and during this a terly and blessed her so fervently as she | interval Sir Ernest de Colmar’s two iw bade them farewell when setting out on| pages returned not to the Golden Fal- i a i a her journey to the Bohemian capital. | con. And she thought likewise of the tran-| The knight’s apprehensions were now scendent Gloria, with the large dark of the most serious nature ; and his sus- eves of such supernal lustre and the | pense became the more torturing inas- hair which seemed like floods of sun- | much as he was totally at a loss how to shine and gold mingling and rolling to- proceed, in order to ascertain what had gether in undulating masses, as if hea- become of the gallant youths. His po- ven’s own blessed halo were lent to/ sition in this respect was rendered illume a countenance where the tint of | doubly painful by the necessity which the rose died off into the purity of the compelled him to take his departure a fairest and softest lily! Yes; Angela| from Prague at so early a date; in fact a thought of this being of wondrous beau- | his residence in the Bohemian capital te ty : she thought, too, of those amiable, | was now limited to two days more, and light-hearted, and lovely girls, Linda | in these two days must he either bestir and, Beatrice;. and then she thought himself in behalf of his pages, or else | likewise—Oh! yes, she thought of the | abandon them altogether to their fate, . | gallant and handsome Sir Ernest de { whatever it might be. Colmar! | But what step was he to take? how | | ; For the reader will remember that | was he to proceed !? % Angela Wildon had formed her own} ‘These questions did he ask himself a ideal image and personification of all the | thousand times during the four days , ; attributes which should be possessed by | which had elapsed since his interview : the man to whom she could alone sur-| with Gloria in the grove, and his subse- ie render her heart; and she at length| quent visit to the Captain-General of found the idol of her imagination re-|the Taborites. But ingenuity suggest- alized in the Austrian warrior! Wasj|ed no feasible scheme in answer to ae he not all that she had pictured to her- | those queries; and the fifth morning ish 4 self as worthy to be beloved? Was he | dawned without beholding either the se not brave? and his years, too, were a! return of the pages or the initiation of o eb; few more than her own, promising | any measure towards the discovery of im great worldly experience on his part, | their fate. atc and yet leaving him a young man!—| — It frequently happens‘that when a po- PA Thon his countenance, was it not as| sition of embarrassment, difficulty, or Ne expressive of a generous frankness as it! danger reaches a crisis at which the last : »,/ , ¢* P , ’ - comicbooks.com